1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for enrichment of radioactive isotopes and more particularly to a method for inducing nuclear reactions that yield enriched radioactive isotopes as a product.
2. Related Art
The present invention relates to a method for photon excitation of nuclear reaction/transmutation processes, to yield enriched radioactive isotopes. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of radioactive isotope enrichment, which comprises bombarding atoms of the isotope with X-rays, gamma rays or high-energy photons.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,481 entitled "Uranium Isotopic Enrichment" issued to Jacques Aubert, et.al., on Dec. 12, 1978, discloses a process of isotopic enrichment of uranium using isotopic exchange between aqueous solutions containing U.sup.235.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,873 entitled "Method of Isotopic Enrichment" issued to Gerald Stevenson, et.al., on Dec. 29, 1992, discloses a method of isotope enrichment using an electron transfer agent to effect a chemical separation of U.sup.235 present in a reaction mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,820 entitled "Process for Producing Enriched Uranium Having a U.sup.235 Content of at least 4 wt % via Combination of a Gaseous Diffusion Process and an Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation Process to Eliminate Uranium Hexafluoride Tails Storage" issued to James Horton and Howard Hayden, Jr., on May 30, 1995, discloses a process capable of producing enriched uranium using laser isotope separation in a gaseous diffusion mixture containing U.sup.235.
Each of the above cited U.S. patents describe methods for separating, for example, U.sup.235 from a mixture of isotopes, yet none of them actually produce more U.sup.235 than was present to begin with.
An apparatus constructed according to the principles of the present invention does not suffer the performance and efficiency limitations of prior art and produces, for example, U.sup.235 in samples that previously contained no amount of U.sup.235.